In our previous post, we discussed two major reasons to move your business operations to Sofia, Bulgaria. Leading talent and favorable taxes are among the key prerequisites for tech business’ success. Here’re three additional advantages to choosing Sofia:
1. Booming tech industry
Did you know that IT is one of the fastest-growing sectors in Bulgaria? Specifically, its share of the capital’s economy exceeds 6%, showing an increase of over 50% since 2011. In 2017 alone, its growth was nearly 20%, as Sofia Invest reports.
Meanwhile, Sofia ranks 2nd among the top 10 fastest growing tech centers in Europe as far as the annual growth of active members of the ecosystem is concerned. 90% of all technology companies in Bulgaria operate in Sofia. Also, the regional IT sector marks one of the highest labor productivity indexes in the country. Finally, the sector is almost fully export-oriented.
Here’re a few supplementary statistics to consider:
Bulgaria is the EU country with the highest share of women in ICT (31.2%)
Most employees in the IT sector in Sofia work in Programming (25.80%), followed by IT Consultancy (9.89%), and Data Processing, Hosting, and related activities (7.71%).
Bulgaria has the highest number of fintech companies in South-East Europe (over 70, most of them located in Sofia).
Global IT R&D leaders like SAP Labs, HP, Bosch, VMware, CISCO, and IBM have set their R&D centers in Sofia, employing and educating thousands of highly qualified professionals (50 000 people employed in over 100 IT companies).
A sneak peek into a few companies at Campus X
At Campus X, we’ve already welcomed several international companies, which managed to quickly set up offices in Bulgaria and seamlessly grow their teams. For example, the global business consulting and publicly-traded company Wipro joined our community along with the revolutionary Dutch mobile bank bunq, which opened their first office in Sofia.
2. Premium digital infrastructure
Let’s face it: flawless IT services keep tech companies up and running. And Sofia has one of the highest Internet speeds in Europe. To be specific, Bulgaria’s capital has the second-highest average internet connection rate in the region with downloading and uploading speed of respectively 24 MBPS and 15 MBPS.
As far as electricity is concerned, the country has been a net exporter in the past 10 years. Bulgaria’s power sector has a supply mix, including nuclear, hydro, thermal-based, and renewable energy generation. And the price of the service for industrial use is among the lowest in the EU.
Campus X’s seamless Tech Experience
Campus X offers custom IT services, which streamline and enhance companies’ business processes. From best-in-class infrastructure to VPN access and complex on-premises and cloud solutions, among others.
Our IT infrastructure is prepared for uninterrupted operation, whereas our UPSs and diesel generators ensure constant power supply and Internet connectivity.
“Two independent fiber-optic routes connect us directly to two reliable ISPs and offer >1 Gbps of combined always-on connectivity. We’ve worked hard to implement various High Availability and Disaster Recovery technologies. Combined with uninterrupted power, provided by our building UPSs and diesel generators, this makes us quite independent of external factors when it comes to business continuity,” explains Sergei Billiarski, Campus X’s award-winning IT Manager.
3. Easy to register a business
Last but not least, establishing a business entity in Sofia, Bulgaria is easier than at many other places across the world. The latter is governed by the Commercial Act and there’s no limitation on the share participation of foreign legal entities and individuals.
The two most popular forms of business associations in the country are the limited liability company (OOD) and the joint-stock company (AD). Here’s what you need to do in the two cases, according to the information provided by Sofia Invest.
The Campus X difference
We offer premier in-house and partner services to help you manage all aspects of setting up your business. All under one roof.
To provide everything you need at one place, we work with leading companies such as PwC – for Tax and Legal consultations, the first and #1 tech-ed organization in Bulgaria Telerik Academy – for Junior Tech Talent and Employee Upskilling, and the trusted HR agency BICA Services – for Senior talent and HR services.
Want to become a member of Sofia’s biggest end-to-end ecosystem? Get in touch now.
